• Serodus, a Norwegian Biomedical Company, is Developing an Innovative Treatment for Chronic Heart Failure
• This New Drug Aims to Relieve the Symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure, Based on the Principle of Blocking the Serotonin-4 Receptor 
• The Company is One of 15 Finalists Who Will be Presenting Their Project to Investors and Companies Attending HiT Barcelona World Innovation Summit, 17th–19th June 2009

Barcelona, Spain -- June 4, 2009 -- HiT Barcelona – World Innovation Summit, announced the 15 finalists of its Healthcare Innovation Marketplace Tournament. All participating companies are in an advanced stage of development of products or services in healthcare delivery, medical technology, therapeutics and diagnostics and seek support from partners with the objective of achieving market penetration. 

Forming part of this elite group is Serodus development stage pharmaceutical company that develops new medicines for treating diseases involving serotonin signalling outside of the central nervous system. Their lead candidate, currently in preclinical, is a 5-HT4 receptor antagonist intended for the treatment of congestive heart failure. The company have identified a group of highly active and selective 5-HT4 receptor antagonists, one of which they intend to develop for the treatment of congestive heart failure and other diseases outside of the central nervous system. The effect of 5-HT4 receptor antagonists in heart failure patients was previously confirmed for GSK's compound piboserod. 

Trygve Gulbrandsen, COO of Serodus commented “we are delighted to have been selected to participate in HiT because it gives us an excellent opportunity to improve the awareness of our interesting business opportunity in the biomedical community.” 

Serodus is one of 15 finalists who have been classified in two categories (therapeutic and diagnostic / medical technology and others) and will be reviewed by a jury panel of experts in the field, Directors of companies involved in Biotechnology and Life Sciences and Venture Capital firms The 15 finalists: 

The 2-day Healthcare Innovation Marketplace programme combines keynote addresses and panel discussions by prominent experts in the biomedical and life science fields, along with investors and entrepreneurs: 

Keynote speakers 
- Chris Lowe, Director, Institute Biotechnology; Professor of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge 

- Irene Norstedt, Head of Health Research Directorate, European Commission, 

- Joseph Feczko, Former Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer Inc,  

Experts and Discussion Panelists 

- David Bäckström, Chief Executive Officer, Telemedicine Clinic, Spain 

- Eduardo Bravo, Chief Executive Officer CEO, Cellerix SA S.L., Spain  

- George Morris, Chief Operating Officer, Valirx Plc, United Kingdom

- Angel Josep Garcia i Bassets, General Manager, Gem-Med S.L., Spain 

- Roop Chandwani, PhD Chief Executive Officer, Aggio Partners, United Kingdom 

- Michiel de Haan, coFounder & General Partner, Aescap Venture, Netherlands 

- Janke J. Dittmer, Senior Director New Business Development, Philips Healthcare Incubator, Netherlands 

- Pedro Luis Gonzalez, Head of New Products & Business Analysis, GM&MA, Laboratorios Almirall, Spain 

- Frank Heemskerk, Chief Executive Officer, Research, Innovation, Management, Belgium 

- Joel Jean-Mairet, Founding Partner, Ysios Capital Partners SGECR, SA, Spain 

- Marcel Kloosterman, Investment Manager & Senior Associate, DSM Venturing B. V. & Limburg Ventures BV, Netherlands 

- Alec Mian, Chief Executive Officer, Genmedica Therapeutics SL, Spain 

- George Morris Chief Operating Officer, Valirx Plc, United Kingdom  

- Bernard Peperstraete Principal, NGN Capital, United States 

- Jesús Purroy, Director, Parc Cientific de Barcelona, Spain 

- Juan F Roman, NHS Innovations East, Health Enterprise East, United Kingdom  

- Julia Salaverria, Founding Partner, Ysios Capital Partners SGECR, SA, Spain 

- Josep Ll. Sanfeliu, Founding Partner, Ysios Capital Partners SGECR, SA, Spain

- Jesse Schulman, Director Analysis & Research, Ferghana Partners Group, United Kingdom 

- Claire Skentelbery, Director of Operations, Europe Unlimited, Belgium 

- Jens Sundbye, Executive Manager, European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB), Denmark

- Christian Suojanen, Consultant Europe, Valor Management, Switzerland 

- Montserrat Vendrell, Director General, Biocat-BioRegió de Catalunya, Spain 

- Renee White, President and Managing Partner, Caduceus Technology Partners, LLC, USA 

- Werner Wolf, Venture Partner, former Senior Science & Technology Advisor to TVM, Bio Innovations. 

The objective of the Healthcare Innovation Marketplace is to foster entrepreneurs and investor partnerships to drive strategically innovative projects in the critical fields of life science and technologies and to become the global reference platform to share knowledge and actively network. 

About HiT Barcelona 
HiT Barcelona is a unique global event bringing together leading innovators, experts, entrepreneurs and investors to share and expand knowledge and to promote strategic business projects via tournaments. Focused on three key sectors with a high growth potential, Telecom, CleanTech and Healthcare, HiT Barcelona combines top-level plenary sessions (Plenary Congress) with a programme of meetings and sector-specific competitions of some of the most innovative business projects worldwide (Innovation Marketplaces). The event will also host the first ever truly international “Business-Plan/Early-Stage” competition for entrepreneurs, the Global Entrepreneurship Competition. 

HiT Barcelona is an initiative of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona City Council (via their Finance, Economy and Innovation Departments), the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and La Caixa. It is organised by the Fira de Barcelona and the Barcelona Plà Estrategic. The first edition of the event is expected to bring to Barcelona over 2,500 delegates from the 17th to the 19th of June 2009.